The Great Guano Rush: Entrepreneurs and American Overseas Expansion

Business & Money

Skaggs, Jimmy M.

Economics

PALGRAVE~MACMILLAN

How did some of the most savage and desolate islands in the world, scattered across the Pacific and Caribbean, become U.S. territories? The Great Guano Rush describes the fascinating and little-known history of this earliest example of American overseas expansion. 'Guano' (bird droppings) was the 19th century's most important fertilizer and in 1856 Congress, believing that American farmers were being gouged on guano sales by foreign monopolists, authorised U.S. citizens to claim and exploit unowned guano-rich islands around the world. The legacy of this decision is a strange group of American 'appurtenances,' ranging from Haiti to the central Pacific and with a highly diverse subsequent history, from the notorious near-slavery of guano-miners on Navassa Island to the contemporary issue of the Johnston Atoll chemical weapon destruction plant. The Great Guano Rush is an important book for its insights on both 19th century America and the history of a key commodity. But it is also important in establishing that, contrary to the American free enterprise myth, this success has always been based on a close cooperation between business and government.

The harsh business realities of driving cattle are separated in this book from the mythology and folklore of the cattle-trailing era. Jimmy M. Skaggs focuses on the transportation agents who contracted the delivery of cattle for Texas ranchers and drove the animals northward for sale. He reveals them as shrewd "hip-pocket" businessmen.

The Cattle-Trailing Industry: Between Supply and Demand, 1866-1890,

Univ Pr of Kansas

Clipperton Island is one of the most obscure, isolated islands on earth although it is primarily based on guano (bird droppings) lying 670 miles South West of Acapulco. Despite this it has captured the imagination of many famous people including Emperor Charles V, Napoleon III, Mexican President Porfirio Diaz, Italian King Victor Emmanuel III and assorted pirates, cast-aways, adventurers, scientists and sailors. Here is told the entire and fascinating history of this strange coral atoll.

Clipperton: A History of the Island the World Forgot

History

Americas

Walker Co

The harsh business realities of driving cattle are separated in this book from the mythology and folklore of the cattle-trailing era. Jimmy M. Skaggs focuses on the transportation agents who contracted the delivery of cattle for Texas ranchers and drove the animals northward for sale. He reveals them as shrewd "hip-pocket" businessmen.

The Cattle-Trailing Industry

University of Oklahoma Press

Book by Connor, Seymour V., Skaggs, Jimmy M.

Broadcloth and Britches: The Santa Fe Trade

Connor, Seymour V.

Texas A & M Univ Pr

Hundreds of miles from its supply center in Chihuahua and just freed from the grip of Spain’s mercantilist colonial policies, New Mexico was ripe for foreign commerce when the first of the Missouri traders arrived in Santa Fe in 1821. For the next forty years trade flourished between Americans hawking anything that would sell, often at incredible profit, and New Mexican buyers hungry for all types of manufactured goods. But the frontier moved inevitably westward, goods became more readily available and consequently less expensive, and the railroad at last replaced the mulewhackers who had long plied the Santa Fe Trail. Broadcloth and Britches is the first account to synthesize an abundance of primary source material—the reminiscences of traders, the impressions of journalists and soldiers, the unpublished manuscripts of both literate and semiliterate observers—and serious scholarly journal articles and monographs of the Santa Fe Trail and trade. In this detailed and lively narrative, the authors trace the origins, development, and decline of the trade: the early expeditions; the route and its hazards; transport, financing, and profits; the effects of complex political shifts in Spain, Mexico, Texas, and the United States; and the economic consequences of increasingly efficient supply to a relatively fixed market.

Texas A&M University Press

Red meatit’s as American as apple pie. In a world where most hunger is alleviated with an occasional handful of grain, red meat’s daily appearance on most American tables is a vivid symbol of national prosperity. The red-meat industry is also a powerful symbol. Undulating with the waves made by entrepreneurs and monopolies, shortages and gluts, scandal and government regulations, the industry mirrors the nation’s turbulent economic history. Author Jimmy M. Skaggs traces the development of the red-meat industry from forest-foraging razorbacks in colonial days to genetic engineering of tender, disease-resistant beef cattle. Scholars and persons interested in livestock raising, agriculture, and America’s marketplace will findPrime Cut to be an unflinching account of one of our nation’s most volatile, most quintessentially American industries. With the extensive bibliography accompanying this work, the only modern comprehensive study of American livestock raising and meatpacking, readers will have access to countless details of the meat industry.

Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607-1983

Industries

Red meat—it’s as American as apple pie. In a world where most hunger is alleviated with an occasional handful of grain, red meat’s daily appearance on most American tables is a vivid symbol of national prosperity. The red-meat industry is also a powerful symbol. Undulating with the waves made by entrepreneurs and monopolies, shortages and gluts, scandal and government regulations, the industry mirrors the nation’s turbulent economic history. Author Jimmy M. Skaggs traces the development of the red-meat industry from forest-foraging razorbacks in colonial days to genetic engineering of tender, disease-resistant beef cattle. Scholars and persons interested in livestock raising, agriculture, and America’s marketplace will find Prime Cut to be an unflinching account of one of our nation’s most volatile, most quintessentially American industries. With the extensive bibliography accompanying this work, the only modern comprehensive study of American livestock raising and meatpacking, readers will have access to countless details of the meat industry.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Skaggs, Jimmy M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Skaggs, Jimmy M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Skaggs, Jimmy M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Great Guano Rush: Entrepreneurs and American Overseas Expansion

The Great Guano Rush: Entrepreneurs and American Overseas Expansion

The Cattle-Trailing Industry: Between Supply and Demand, 1866-1890,

Clipperton: A History of the Island the World Forgot

The Cattle-Trailing Industry

Broadcloth and Britches: The Santa Fe Trade

Broadcloth and Britches: The Santa Fe Trade

Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607-1983

Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607-1983